Page 12 of In the Shadows

I looked around at the guys, all of which seemed good with it. “On one condition.”

“What’s that?” he asked, nervously.

“I know these will hit social media—”

He nodded.

“So the deal is we’ll pose and sign, but when they hit Facebook and Twitter make sure you guys tag our bands in the pics. Deal?”

“Are you serious? Hell yeah it’s a deal. Thanks!” He jogged back over to his group.

I could see he was telling them what went down. Their voices rose and the tables surrounding theirs shot daggers their way while loudly shushing them.

“That’s freaking hilarious,” Mickey laughed, turning back to face our group.

“That it is, but it’s also positive publicity for our bands. And without the fans, we wouldn’t be on this road trip right now,” I told them.

“Very true,mi amigo,” Diamond said, drumming his fingers on the table top.

We finished eating, then met Tom and his friends outside and posed for pics with each of them before signing our names on anything and everything they tossed our way. They were cool, and they were fans which made loving what you do even easier.

“Hey, why don’t you guys head back to the rigs? I wanna ask Diamond about something so we’ll catch up to you,” I said to the confused faces of my band brothers staring back at me.

Diamond crossed his arms across his chest and clenched his jaw. Once the rest of the guys had crossed the street he let go, “All right, let me have it although I have to say I don’t know what the fuck I did.”

“Chill, I don’t think you did anything. I’ve just noticed something recently that could turn into a potential issue if we don’t nip it in the bud before it escalates,” I informed him.

He eyed me suspiciously. “Oh yeah, what?”

“Are you aware of the huge crush Easton has on you?”

Relaxing his stance, he groaned, “Yeah, but I’ve kinda taken the poor guy under my wing. We’re enough of a handful at times and now his dad dumped BOD on him and I don’t want them to take advantage of him.”

“Understood, but I think his feelings for you differ from yours to him. I don’t want him to get hurt and then have that get back to his dad and risk our contract with Sal. Look man, I’m not trying to come down on you. I just wanted to make sure you were aware. The guy looks at you like you just hung the moon and when you flirted with the waitress today, he shot daggers at you both.” I hope he was absorbing the complexity of this situation which could get out of hand extremely fucking fast.

“I hear you loud and clear, papa. I’ll have a chat with him, but I’m not gonna let those jackasses walk all over him,” he warned.

“We’re right there with you. We came as a team when he called you to their truck last night. We’ve got each other’s backs in this band, you know that.”

“I do, and I’ll have a talk with him,” he replied, relaxing his stance.

“Cool. Let’s roll then,” I told him before we jogged across the street to meet up with the guys at our campsite. Of course, all eyes were on us when we walked up. I slung my arm around Joey’s neck, pulling him near and kissing the side of his head.

“Let’s grab the folding chairs and kick it outside,” I said, but Rob was already one step ahead of us having unlocked the bin underneath the bus and was pulling them out. We surrounded the fire pit next to our site and were chilling when the manager tossed some wood into it and lit it up and joined us for a beer.

“Hey Rob,” I handed him a cold one out of the ice chest the guys from BOD had brought over. “Since the L.A. shows got rescheduled, do we have time to hit the Grand Canyon before we have to be in Albuquerque?”

Easton looked up from his laptop, catching my attention.

“I think we do, hell maybe we could even park the busses there for the night. East, wanna ask your dad and see what he says?”

Easton already had his phone out and pressed to his ear before answering, “On it.”

That guy was forever glued to his laptop. As soon as he hung up, he was typing away. I was hoping this side trip would be possible. Romantic, I am not – well, at least I never had a reason to be before, but the thought of being somewhere with such an intense setting with Joey was making me want to pull out all the stops. I’d been putting off having sex with him, wanting everything to be perfect for it. And for our first time, I didn’t feel like the bus and its occupants would help make the event be the memorable one I wanted it to be.

“You okay over there? Deep in thought?” Joey eyed me.

“Yeah, sorry. Just got some things on my mind.”

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